CHESSNOID

It looks like this is a controversial match with many MMA fans feeling the decision is wrong.  The final score for the fight was officially 48-47  for Machida by the CSAC.  It went the full 5 rounds (CSAC scoring was 3 rounds for Machida and 2 rounds to Shogun).  Usually in these controversial fights, sometimes watching it without the audio may change your mind.  Especially if you score it yourself vs listening to Rogan and Goldberg highlight all the punches and kicks of their favorite fighters.  Try it and see or just stay mad.  It may not change your mind, but I think you will realize the fight was not one sided but actually close.

Update:  I just watched the entire  fight again and counted actual strikes and kicks landed round by round.  Yes, without the sound of annoying Rogan to sway the fight.  Machida won this easily.  The first 3 rounds he won easily with more strikes and kicks landed.  Not only did he win the first 3 rounds, he landed the more effective strikes.  Even in rounds 4 & 5 were closer than what I read on the play by play blogs on Sherdog, MMA Weekly, and Bloody Elbow. Those bloggers are wrong!  Watch the fight again and score it round by round by actual strikes and kicks landed.

Judges score by punches and kicks landed, as well as take-downs that are successfully executed and not stuffed.  Shogun missed many of his kicks.  I think the average UFC fan hates the way Machida defends which looks like he is running when he is simply avoiding kicks and punches.  I could see Shogun getting frustrated with his missed kicks and his failed attempts for takedowns.  If you watch for actual strikes and kicks LANDED by each fighter round by round, then you will likely score it like the judges did.

UFC 104 QUICK RESULTS:

Main Card Bouts:
-Lyoto Machida def. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua by Unanimous Decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47)
-Cain Velasquez def. Ben Rothwell by TKO (Strikes) at 0:58, R2
-Gleison Tibau def. Josh Neer by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
-Joe Stevenson def. Spencer Fisher by TKO (Strikes) at 4:03, R1
-Anthony Johnson def. Yoshiyuki Yoshida by KO (Punch) at 0:41, R1

Preliminary Bouts:
-Ryan Bader def. Eric Schafer by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-26, 30-27)
-Pat Barry def. Antoni Hardonk by TKO (Strikes) at 2:30, R2
-Chael Sonnen def. Chael Sonnen by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
-Jorge Rivera def. Rob Kimmons at 1:53 by TKO (Strikes), R3
-Kyle Kingsbury def. Razak Al-Hassan by Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
-Stefan Struve def. Chase Gormley at 4:04 by Submission (Triangle), R1

Or is this sport now becoming like boxing with rigged matches and  bad scoring by judges.  You can watch many boxing matches that were close and feel there was a robbery.

There is another MMA event that I forgot about this weekend.  Dream 12 which has a decent card and best of all, it is FREE.

DREAM.12
Location: Osaka Castle Hall
Venue: Osaka, Japan
Broadcast: HDNet (North America)

• Alistair Overeem vs. James Thompson
• Zelg Galesic vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
• Tokimitsu Ishizawa vs. Katsuyori Shibata
• Champ Marius Zaromskis vs. Myeon Ho Bae (welterweight non-title fight)
• Keisuke Fujiwara vs. Tomoya Miyashita
• Tarec Saffiedine  vs. Yoon Dong Sik*
• Chase Beebe vs. Yoshiro Maeda
• Eddie Alvarez vs. Katsunori Kikuno
• Kuniyoshi Hironaka vs. Won Sik Park